Cruel Summer - C. Sturniolo

Five | Chris

[Reminder: This is a short story so everything moves fast]

Chris looked behind him and reached for my next gift, I was already flattered from just the hug and bouquet of flowers. If someone was recording this my face would definitely be red or pink.

"Here you go" he said handing me a two different sized boxes

"You didn't have too" I said stepping back

"Come on, it's from all of us" he said nodding towards them

"Okay fine" I said sitting down in the dirt

I looked up seeing chris walk over and sit next to me, looking at the boxes. His gaze made his way up to me, memorizing every single inch of my face. It was flattering that someone could look at me with such delicacy and no intentions of hurting me.

"Are you gonna open your gift?" he lowly asked

"Yeah yeah" I responded in a panicking tone

Looking at the boxes with such worry, I hope they didn't spend a lot of money on me. Or even if the other two don't know about these presents.. I hope he didn't spend much on them. Although I am very flattered he even thought to get me things.

I stared at the two boxes, grabbing the smaller box and cradling it in my hand. You could practically see me shaking from the tension. Chris was practically on me with his head hovering over my shoulder.

Opening the box I saw a little card. Now, becoming scared of what it could be.

"I don't know if it's the right one but I hope it is" Chris spoke out making me look at him

Woah, he was too close. I almost just kissed the guy. Which wouldn't be bad as an additional birthday present but also I haven't decided whether or not I actually like him.

I looked back at the box, my jaw dropped to the floor. It was a puck, but not just any puck. The puck was from my favortie team and favortie players.

"Chrisss" I dragged out being overloaded with excitement

"Are they the right players?" he asked with a worried tone

"Of course they are. Thank you so much" I say while impulsively putting my hand on his cheek

"They wrote little notes too. I didn't ask them too but they did anyways, you should read them on your own though" he suggested

"Thank you, really" I said putting my other hand on his cheek

"Your welcome" he giggled

Quickly I took my hands off his face and moved to the next box. God please don't let this be jewelry. I would hate for this to be super expensive. Once the box top slipped off, sure enough there was a silver necklace sitting there. The charm being a little silver butterfly. It was beautiful, but I can't accept it. This costs a lot.

"chris. This is a lot of money" I said completely speechless

"It's okay we all pitched in for that one" he said grabbing the box

"Its too pretty Chris" I waved a hand

"Lift your hair up" he told me

I lifted up my hair becoming quiet, the only thing you could hear is my breathing since I was panicking from what was going on. Never in a million years would I have thought a guy would be putting a necklace on me until I was married. I'm not even in a relationship with this guy and he's putting a necklace on me.

"Hold on" he said grabbing his phone

"You are not taking a picture of me" I said hiding my face in my knees